the little fish known as cuddies, which are the young of the saithe and lythe, take the fly right greedily, and make up in numbers what they lack in size and strength. The fish affording the best sport with fly, so far as my experience goes, are pollack, coal-fish, and bass; but, like trout, the largest specimens somewhat disdain so small a lure as the imitation white bait. Still the pollack, or lythe, of 4 or 5 lb., is a strong fish, and on the fly-rod the angler will have no little difficulty in preventing his descent to some stronghold among rocks and weeds.

The largest bass are not commonly found in considerable shoals. What are known as "school-bass" -fish averaging from 2 to 5 lb. afford the fly-fisher the best possible sport to be obtained in the sea, When these are hunting the herring-fry and breaking the water, the gulls screaming overhead and sharing the whitebait banquet, a fly cast judiciously into the middle of the shoal will often work great execution. The fish are not less game than sea-trout, and would compare favourably with Salmo trutta, were they only as useful on the table as they are sport-giving in the sea. The mention of seatrout reminds me that those fish occasionally, and, more rarely, the salmon, rise to a fly in salt-water. The farther north we go, the more complacent in this respect are the Salmonida. Like many other seafish, they enter the sea-lochs to feed on the herring-fry, and in the brackish water of many estuaries are commonly fished for with the artificial fly. In Kyles of Durness and Tongue, in Sutherland, and in the fjords of Norway, it is a regular practice to angle for sea-trout in salt-water; but the lure commonly used is a sand-eel, blue phantom, or other

whole subject of sea-trout fishing in salt-water in two articles which were published in the 'Field,' November 12, 1887, and March 3, 1888.

The capture of salmon in the sea with artificial fly is, as I have indicated, a somewhat rare occurrence; but in the Fleet, between Dornoch and Golspie, in Sutherland, they are commonly fished for in this manner during the first few hours of the rising tide. In July 1888 a very remarkable take of salmon was made by Sir John H. Morris, K.C.S.I., in the large inlet of the sea known as Loch Roag. Into it flows the most prolific salmonriver of the island of Lewispossibly of the United Kingdom. There had been a spell of dry weather, and the salmon had been unable to ascend the river. It was ten days before the fish showed any inclination to take the fly. Sir John Morris and his friends were fishing for sea-trout when they caught the first salmon, and finding that these fish were inclined to rise, they changed their flies and fished for them very carefully, with the result that sixty were killed in a week by five rods. The fly used on the first day was a wasp tied on No. 5 hook, but later on larger flies were used with equal success. But the salmon is nothing if not eccentric, so it is not surprising to hear that none were killed in Loch Roag before or since. am indebted to Sir John Morris for these particulars, so the facts stated are unquestionable.

I

I am inclined to regard coalfish, or saithe, as a freer riser than the lythe. On the west coast of Ireland it has long been the custom to row out in the evening with great bamboo poles,

to the ends of which are fastened stout lines baited with a rough woollen fly; and the saithe are often taken by dozens. The cod is hardly a fish which one would deem of particular interest to the fly-fisher, but he will take the fly none the less if it is only sunk within a foot or two of his capacious maw. In fact, there is nothing in the way of a bait, natural or artificial, which a cod will not take. He does not rise in the ordinary sense, as will bass, lythe, saithe, and mackerel; but it frequently happens that when no fish are near the surface and the angler is sinking his fly, he will hook a codling or cod. And should he allow his lure to reach the bottom, it may even attract a lovely haddock or gurnet. I say lovely; for when taken fresh out of the sea, these fish are decked in hues unseen by those whose knowledge of the inhabitants of the sea is limited to the exhibition on a fishmonger's slab. So much for fly-fishing; but I may add that the fly-fisher should study the tides and the habits of the fish, and that those conditions which are unfavourable on a fresh-water loch-e.g., clear calm water and bright sunlight are almost equally unfavourable on salt-water, though sea-fish are comparatively uneducated.

man. Those great leads are used to keep the line down when the boat is sailing briskly. By journeying a little slower through the water, a smaller lead will suffice to sink the bait, a rod and reel can be used, and wet hands and aching back avoided. Fewer fish will be caught, because less ground, or rather water, will be covered, but pleasurable sport takes the place of arduous labour.

Since fresh-water anglers have taken to sea-fishing, I have noticed that some of the professional fishermen have not been too proud to adopt the methods of the amateurs. For instance, in the Bristol Channel the Welsh fishermen almost invariably use two yards or so of silkworm gut at the end of their mackerel - lines, and gut snoods have replaced flax on the whitinglines of many of the south-coast fishermen. The fish caught trailing or spinning are much the same as those which take the fly-bass, lythe, saithe, and, if we fish close enough to the bottom, gurnet, haddock, and cod. Often when mackerel-fishing, and the breeze has almost died away, our lines have sunk until the lead has been gently bumping over the sandy bottom. Then has come the sullen resistance of heavy cod, or the fierce tugs of some gorgeous red gurnet, with wing-like fins fringed with iridescent colours, making a pleasant variety to the great heap of silvery mackerel.

Sometimes the sea-angler will take his stand on some rocky headland, and by using tackle almost identical with that required for pike-casting out his spinning-bait some thirty or forty yards, and drawing it quickly in-catches one or more splendid hard-fighting bass. But more often, perhaps, he will cast in vain; for the bass is only exceeded in shyness by the

grey mullet, a fish which is infinitely more difficult to catch than

either trout or salmon.

There are few forms of angling more exciting than whiffing, railing, or trailing, as it is variously called, for large lythe. Of course, if the line be of a size suitable for a washerwoman's use, and the hooks and baits be in proportion, the fish must be big indeed which cannot be hauled in hand over hand. But such tackle as that is useless unless the water be very rough or somewhat coloured, or the fishing be done during the obscurity of late evening, when lythe are well on the feed, and unobservant of lines however thick. Though I would recommend, both as a means of hooking numbers of large fish and bringing them to boat after they have taken the bait, a very much finer line than this, nevertheless that line must be so strong as to withstand the first rush of the fish in its attempt to reach its lair among the seaweed. There are few things more exciting than the first pull of a big pollack. It is as if a thunderbolt had struck the top of the rod and beaten it down on to the water. If it were a salmon, there would be one gallant rush at no great depth, and we would yield line to him in his first endeavour to get free. But with a pollack it is different. His first great, and practically only, effort is in the nature of a dive headlong down to the bottom; and if unchecked, not only is he a lost fish from the angler's point of view, but with him must go a certain quantity of tackle, and much valuable time will be lost in repairs. Single gut, even of the stoutest, is all too weak for large lythe-fishing off a rocky and weedy coast.

The salmon and trout fisher rightly praises the charming

branches of angling which he most favours, by reason, in a measure, of the magnificent scenery into which they take him. The mere word "salmon " to him brings back memories of snow-capped mountains, rolling moorlands, foaming torrents swirling amid great boulders and rocks, and of exciting encounters with the king of fish, with all their anxieties, fears, and joys. But the surroundings of the lythe-fisher are hardly, if at all, less beautiful. He is being rowed, maybe, along the irregular shores of some calm inlet of the sea on the coast of Sutherland. The salt-water loch is broken up by rocky islets on which sea-birds nest, and lichens deck the masses of grey gneiss. Cloud - topped mountains rise on the mainland, and at this distance seem to be coming almost sheer down to the water-edge. The heather is all aglow with flower. Red-deer are feeding in inaccessible spots on the mountain-side. The water is alive with guillemots, puffins, and razorbills, while great herring and blackbacked gulls are screeching overhead. The smooth round head of a seal appears above the surface, and the beautiful creature gazes at us for a moment through its soft brown eyes, and then disappears. Now and again there is a hissing sound as three porpoises, which are feeding on the herrings, show their round backs and blow. Solan-geese are taking great aerial dives with closed wings, causing the water to boil as they strike it, and coming up, sometimes with, but more often without, a fish in their sharp-edged beaks. The sun is nearing the horizon to the north-westward, and the mountain-sides are lit up with everchanging colours-now gold, now purple, now orange. Truly the surroundings are all that the heart

There are two rods over the stern of the little boat which Donald is rowing with such care along the edge of those weedfringed rocks. Presently there is a shriek of the reel, and one of these all but disappears overboard. But we are on the alert, and have a hand upon it before it is too late. How that fish fights to regain the position he foolishly left to seize that little brown eel which passed his lair!

"A good fish, Donald!"

"Oh ay, a good fushe!" And presently the clip is brought into requisition, and a beautiful creature, with eyes bright and soft and brown as those of the seal, is lifted into the boat. Others follow, some larger, a few smaller; and not until it is almost too dark for us to safely thread our way among the narrow channels, does Donald turn the boat's head towards the little stone quay at the head of the loch.

But lythe and mackerel fishing apart, it must be confessed that the basket is more often better filled when we fish with natural bait near the bottom than with fly or spinner. The largest bass of all, great fellows weighing sometimes as much as 15 lb., will not often have anything to say to a twopenny-halfpenny little bit of feather and tinsel. The patriarchal fish haunt the coast near the mouths of harbours and estuaries, where refuse of all kinds affords them food. Indeed, if you would catch them, you would be well advised not to be over-nice in the matter of baits. There are few things more tempting for a big bass than a great lump of ray's liver which has been kept for a day or two, nor are these fish averse to the interiors of chickens

and rabbits. They will take a whole herring or pilchard as it is lying on the bottom of the sea, but in that case there must be no weight, for the bass goes off and gorges it before the angler strikes, and if he feels any resistance from lead or otherwise he at once drops the bait. These great bass are also very partial to that quaint creature known to fishermen as the squid, and many are caught on long lines baited with pieces of squid and laid along rocky shores.

Well do I remember one calm starlight night, when a little Welsh lad and myself were in a boat within twenty yards of some beetling cliffs, against which a slight swell was breaking. We were using very coarse hand-lines, and hoping to catch some monster congers which were known to abound at this particular spot; and the eels gave us good sport, though we did not get any very great ones. Suddenly my line was torn nearly out of my hand, and in a second a fish, which could not have been much under 20 lb. in weight, was lashing the surface into foam, just as any fresh-run salmon sometimes does when the rank barb of the hook sinks deeply into some tender place. The sea was full of phosphorescence that night, and this creature, as it lashed and beat about in a sort of glowworm bath, was a beautiful sight. No other fish that swims in the sea, except perhaps the salmon, would be so tigerish. Alas! it is always the largest which are lost, if anglers are to be believed. The Welsh lad who was with me had never before seen such a thing as this. He would have cared little for a conger-eel of 20 lb., knowing them right well; but this thing, which struggled and kicked wildly, and seemed to almost foam at the

mouth like a mad dog, caused consternation.

"Gaff him quickly!" I cried,"gaff him!"

But the lad only stood and stared, and presently the hook came away, the water grew still, and a few sparks of phosphorescent light on the surface of the water were alone left to tell the story.

This leads me to another great fish which was lost, but not by me. Not far from the spot where we fished that night were some projecting rocks on which bass-fishers frequently took their stand, and in the grey light of early morning sometimes but not often enjoyed rare sport. Their bait was commonly skate's liver, and they would use a float tackle. Sitting quietly there, one could times and oft see great bass swimming by, but stopping to rub their noses among the weeds as they picked up some such inconsiderable trifle as a baby crab. Well, to come to this big fish. One of these anglers happened upon a shoal of large grey mullet. Perhaps it was the king of all the shoal that took the piece of odorous ray's liver. The angler struck, and for a second saw the fish, which was near the surface. It could not have been less than 12 lb., he says, but it went straight away among the rocks until every inch of line was off his reel, and then in a second broke the stout trace of plaited gut. Let no one suppose that little skill is required in sea-fishing. Clever indeed is he who can catch large grey mullet.

Sometimes these fish will follow a ship right into dock, feeding greedily on the vegetable growths with which its bottom is covered. All kinds of bait have been tried for them without much success, including boiled cabbage and fat

An

pork. Occasionally they are taken with a fly, particularly if a gentle -which is the angler's name for the larvæ of the blue-bottle-is placed on the hook. One of the best-known baits is a live ragworm, a sort of marine centipede. A clever method of catching mullet was described in the 'Fishing Gazette' some years ago. angler had observed that when he threw bread-crumbs into a certain piece of water, mullet came to the surface and fed on them; so he thereupon buoyed a very fine line with fragments of cork, placed small hooks along it at intervals and baited them with bread-paste. Having set this line, he sprinkled his bread-crumbs to act as a sort of ground-bait, or, to speak more correctly, surface-bait, and the fish came to his call, and some were captured. It must be confessed, however, that the best bait for grey mullet has yet to be discovered. In this connection I may point out that the amateur sea-fisher may in the not far distant future discover new baits which will be of the greatest advantage to the sea-fisherman. A considerable sum of money has been spent at the Marine Laboratory at Plymouth in the endeavour to find some artificial bait which will replace mussels, lugs, and other natural baits of the fisherman; but, so far, no success has attended the efforts of the chemist who investigated the question.

On the east coast of England, south of Yorkshire, there comes a great run of codling inshore in the autumn, and then one may see fifty or more men standing on the shore and catching these little fish by means of what are known locally as "throw-out" lines. These are hardly machines which commend themselves to enthusiastic